


The Road of Life

by kageillusionz



Category: Naruto
Genre: Eternal Springtime of Our Youth, Kakashi and Guy's Rivalry, M/M, Rokudaime Kakashi, Smitten Kakashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 20:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1955604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kageillusionz/pseuds/kageillusionz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Road of Life isn't so much an excuse but a means that Kakashi employs to surreptitiously keep tabs on a certain someone.</p><p><b>Prompt/Scenario:</b> #46 by megyal: Kakashi is aware that Iruka doesn’t love him, but he can live with that… for now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road of Life

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to my beta, F, for the speediness and being my sounding board. Love you!

The Road of Life is a beautiful winding thing that often leads one by the hand off the beaten track, as it often does to Hatake Kakashi. It wouldn’t have lead to discoveries like that divine oden store in Sunagakure or the musty second hand bookstore in a little village as he was enroute to have tea with the Raikage.

And it is several such occurrences that happens to tug him towards the Academy on Monday, and towards the fishmarket on Tuesday, and then to Ichiraku on Wednesday night, and on Thursday he had to make sure that the numbered training grounds were safe for all of his shinobi to use. All in the name of constant vigilance, of course. One can never be too careful.

Kakashi would have liked to use his Friday and weekend in a similar fashion, but unfortunately business and paperwork that had surprisingly built up in the week meant Kakashi — as the Hokage and Rokudaime of Konohagakure — had to coop himself up in that stuffy office to deal with paperwork until the missing-nin came home. Or didn’t. Whatever.

When Monday comes around again, the Road of Life leads him on a merry chase of dodging work, picking up the reports from T&I, and sunning himself on the boughs of a tree in the afternoon. Not just any tree, mind you. He’s sat, crouched, run across many trees in his surprisingly long lifetime, but none other is as comfortable as the tree found in the Academy.

Especially the branch that just happened to be right outside Iruka’s classroom. By some divine stroke of cosmic luck the tree happened to grow there with its branches just so.

Not that the branch being near Iruka’s classroom has to do with his feelings towards said sensei or anything. No one ever dictates what or where the Road of Life can lead you. Destiny moves in mysterious ways after all and Kakashi just happens to find this particular branch the optimal place to be on Monday afternoon to catch up on confidential reports supported by poker-faced Ibiki; it’s no wonder that the head of Torture and Investigations is the champion poker player in all of Konohagakure.

The window near the branch opens with a bang an hour later just before lessons let out for the day.

“Hokage-sama.”

Ahh yes. Kakashi’s lips twitch upwards in a smile just as he tucks the reports away into his vest and lands on the windowsill before daintily climbing in. No day is complete without listening to Iruka’s sweet dulcet tones address him in a not-very-sweet manner. He had to get his kicks somehow and Kakashi is only human.

He lifts a hand up. “Yo, Iruka-sensei!”

They have an audience. Nineteen tiny little faces pressed up against the glance, eyes shining in awe and admiration at seeing the Rokudaime in the flesh. Kakashi can’t remember a time when he had shared the same sort of feeling; A-ranked missions really was a different way to celebrate one’s childhood.

“You know,” Iruka says at length, the chalk duster in his hand and an eyebrow twitching in warning, “when I said I was available whenever, I didn’t quite mean like this. Were we not a village of shinobi and we have made it our trade, I would have accused you of stalking me.”

Kakashi’s face brightens, his best shit-eating grin bright underneath his habitual mask. Iruka made a fair tracker, not that Kakashi had been ensuring he went unnoticed. “You wound me with your words, Iruka-sensei. Was this tree not a part of the village?”

A look of confusion passes over Iruka’s face like a dark cloud blotting out the blue sky. Kakashi is almost glad that Iruka doesn’t take on active duty, not with the way he wears his heart on his sleeve like that. He’d be dead in an instant and that’s a fate Kakashi is eager to avoid at all costs.

“Yes…?”

“And do I not have a duty to perform to my village as the Rokudaime?”

“Well… yes…”

“And does this duty not also extend to all those that reside within the village walls? Isn’t that what you just taught these the fine young impressionable shinobi that will makes up our next generation?”

Iruka is unimpressed by his talk given by the way his lips purse (in a very kissable manner) and the vein that’s practically bulging (also in a very kissable manner). "Hokage-sama," he says stiffly, fully aware that there are twenty or so pairs of beady little eyes scrutinising their sensei's every word to the esteemed and accomplished Rokudaime.

The school bell rings before any of the youngsters can eavesdrop further on their conversation and Kakashi watches with an air of amusement as the mini-nin run about like headless chickens towards the nearest exit in a raucous chorus of 'G'bye Sensei and Hokage-sama!'.

Iruka clears his throat awkwardly a few minutes later as the last of his students leave the vicinity and walks over to the lectern to pack up his lesson notes.

"When I offered my... assistance a week ago, Hokage-sama—"

Kakashi turns around from where he had been poking at the ‘How to Throw a Shuriken!’ and ‘Kunai: A Guide for You and Me!’ lesson posters adorning the walls. “Kakashi,” he corrects, wanting to hear his name in Iruka’s voice; one of the first downsides of being Hokage.

“—What?”

“Please call me Kakashi.”

“I— It wouldn’t be proper to not address you by your title, Hokage-sama!”

“Kakashi-sensei then. I’ve never been a stickler for tradition.” Kakashi shrugs. He turns back to the front of the room and gets ready to play his best and final card. “And I always considered us... friends. And I don’t… have many of those.”

Iruka’s hand falters where it is in the process of rubbing the blackboard clean. Kakashi can almost pinpoint the precise moment Iruka’s resolve falls apart like thin tissue paper in a very strong gust of wind. “...Kakashi-sensei then,” Iruka says dubiously, even despite Kakashi’s enthusiastic nod.

"As I was saying, Are you going to deny that you've been following me all week?"

Ahh. So Iruka had realised that Kakashi had been _coincidentally_ appearing in all of his usual haunts. He hadn't let himself go as much as Kakashi first expected.

"When did you realize?" Kakashi asks, which is an admission in and of itself.

"It wasn't that difficult. Pakkun stole the dango I was planning to have with my tea—"

Kakashi sniffs delicately, affronted at the accusation that Pakkun would ever do such a lowly thing as _steal_ ; Kakashi taught him better than that. "Borrowed."

The chalkduster pauses in mid-swipe where it’s rubbing at a particularly stubborn streak of chalk. Kakashi finds himself on the receiving end of Iruka's unimpressed eyebrow raise and watches as his mouth curls around the syllable. "What?"

Really. No man ought to have the ability to make a question like that sound so sensual, least of all an academy teacher that Kakashi is very much not stalking.

“Maa, sensei. He would have returned the dango if you had asked.” Kakashi pauses to ponder his statement for a moment. “Obviously not the one that he ingested of course, but—”

“I’ve never heard of of ninken paying for dango,” Iruka laughs and resumes cleaning the blackboard. “Wouldn’t that mean he’d steal it from elsewhere then? I hope Pakkun has enough sense to not steal from Anko.”

“Borrow,” Kakashi insists, running a gloved hand through his hair. He wisely doesn’t divulge the information that ever since he had hinted at his dogs about his possibly gross squishy human feelings for someone. They had gone ballistic — that is _more_  ballistic than usual — and it had taken Bisuke and Uuhei about three point five seconds to point out a line-up of all the possibilities, and between Bull, Guruko and Pakkun four seconds after to weed out precisely who.

He watches with fascination when Iruka sticks the dusters out the window and begins clapping them together, sending clouds of white dust floating towards the sky like the swirl of thoughts inside of Kakashi’s head, most of them revolving around how best to ask Iruka out for a drink and maybe ramen in a hopefully-date-but-it-can-also-be-platonic sort of way. Being in like — and if pushed, Kakashi would make the concession that it might be love — with Iruka is marvellous.

Kakashi ends up stifling the urge to drum his fingers on the lectern as he waits for the right words to come along. Instead, he focuses on, well, Iruka’s rather fantastic ass. One of the many stellar qualities that Kakashi has come to appreciate. And appreciate often.

“I hate to sound rude,” Iruka says at length. The window rolls to a close with a snap. “So let me be frank. Is there something you want?”

“What do you mean? Must I want someth—”

Iruka sighs and sternly gives him a look as if all his patience had flown out the door along with the mini-nins. “Let’s not play this game, Hokage-sama. Spit it out.”

So astute of Iruka to see underneath the underneath. Kakashi can approve.

“Well…”

Then all of a sudden, the entire classroom begins to shake and the posters menacingly waver in their moorings. In that split second before the classroom is filled with smoke, Kakashi launches himself bodily at Iruka and traps him against the floor lest this is an enemy attack.

What he expects is a burst of shuriken and some sort of elemental bolt as years of being in the field has taught Kakashi to expect. When it doesn’t come, Kakashi peers underneath his arm to find Maito Gai standing above them in his Good Guy Pose #734.

“My Exalted Rival and Honourable Hokage! I have come to challenge you and was informed of your locale by the ever-so-charming— Oh!" Gai’s face splits into the widest grin Kakashi has ever seen on a person. “Forgive me for interrupting the precious time you have with your special person!"

"This isn't what it looks like," Iruka says, voice muffled from where Kakashi’s chest may be pressed down against Iruka’s face.

“Such an exemplary display of the Springtime of Our Youth—" Gai's voice quavered, eyes going watery, "—and with someone as universally loved like the Esteemed Iruka-sensei!"

Kakashi climbs quickly to his feet and pulls Iruka top his feet. They ignore Gai's sparkly,  ongoing monologue, and the piles of sakura petals on the classroom floor that Kakashi is convinced must be one of Konoha’s Sublime Green Beast of Prey secret techniques.

“So,” Kakashi begins nonchalantly, running a hand through his fingers bashfully as he turns to face Iruka. “I was going to ask whether perhaps you were amenable to having dinner with me. It doesn’t even have to be tonight or anytime in the future—”

“I was beginning to wonder when you would ask,” Iruka cuts in smoothly, his face softening in his amusement as he dusts off errant sakura petals from his chuunin vest.

“Ha?”

“You are asking me out on a date, aren’t you?”

“W-Well it doesn’t have to be a date… that is if you don’t want it to be a date.”

“— And to think that my One and True Rival would finally pluck up the Courage with this One Act! An Inspiration to Us All—”

“If you can find out when my shift at the mission desk ends and where I typically go afterwards on a Monday night to unwind, and if you can it, then I’ll consider going out to dinner with you, Hokage-sama,” Iruka says as he picks up his satchel.

“Oh. So that’s a yes?”

“It’s a maybe.”

“Which is not a no.”

“—the Very Testament of my Rival’s Passion and Fervour as Konoha’s Rokudaime and—”

“No, it’s not,” Iruka agrees with a smile and a wave as he disappears behind the door. “I have a meeting to attend now, so I’ll leave you both in charge of cleaning up the petals, Hokage-sama and Gai-sensei! Thank you!”

Kakashi sighs quietly, a dopey smile hidden by his mask. It looks like he’ll be spending a good portion of Monday afternoon revising and recalculating the probabilities of Iruka appearing at Ichiraku. He returns his attention to the middle of the classroom to find Gai weeping tears of happiness.

“Honestly, Gai…”

“It’s a Momentous Occasion! Your Special Person has openly received Your Invitation of Love! It’s a Beautiful Thing to Behold!” Gai cries out, striking Good Guy Pose #138 as doves suddenly burst out from behind Gai and fly out the window to the victorious sound of trumpets.

Really, how does Gai do that?

“I challenge you to help me clean this room of the mess that you made.” Kakashi wonders how many sakura trees were empty of their blossoms around Konoha as he surveys the damage. “Performed only with our toes. No hands allowed.”

“Ah!” Gai crows as he whips off his sandals and begins stretching his feet muscles. “I will beat you in this task or I will forward roll my way around Konoha tomorrow!”

“I look forward to seeing that.”

Kakashi wins, but only by a very small margin.

* * *

Iruka attempts to hide his smile during his meeting with all the staff members — ignoring the inquisitive glances he garners from Kurenai-sensei and Ebisu-sensei — and later on when he is at the mission desk. While he had said yes to dinner — and by default all subsequent dinners — Kakashi has yet to convince him of his intentions.

How often does one’s Hokage make known that they wouldn’t be averse to dating Academy teachers?

And oh god, how quickly people will find out. In a village of shinobi that prided itself on finding out secrets, Iruka figures being on a date with Kakashi will not slip anyone’s attention.

But it’ll be worth it, Iruka tells himself as he slips away at the end of his shift to head to Ichiraku. He’s tired, drained in a way that only spending consecutive hours teaching and

He tries not to smile when he sees that he’s not alone and lifts up the blue noren to the sound of Teuchi greeting him that’s followed by a “Yo, Iruka” and a jaunty wave.

Iruka’s heart beats a staccato rhythm, a smile already working its way onto his face. “Good evening, Teuchi-san and Ayame-san.” He slips his satchel off his shoulders and graciously takes the empty seat on Kakashi’s right. “Good evening, Kakashi-san.”

“I took the liberty of ordering for the both of us. Your usual if my sleuthing skills are to be believed.”

“Did you now,” Iruka murmurs wryly when Teuchi does indeed place a bowl of Iruka’s usual (with extra _chashu_ and an extra egg). “Did you find out from Izumo or Kotetsu, or did you succumb and go ask Naruto?”

“Maa, sensei,” Kakashi drawls as he snaps his chopsticks open. “I had your order memorised a long time ago. Now eat up before it gets cold.”

“Oh.” Iruka tries hard to battle the blush rising on his cheeks, but it’s a losing battle. He’d always imagined Kakashi had better things to recall like one of his many thousand techniques, not what Iruka likes to eat at Ichiraku. Clearly, Iruka didn’t give Kakashi enough credit and really knew better than to listen to Anko’s more than biased views of her fellow jounin.

Well. A certain ex-jounin now.

Iruka busies himself and picks up a pair of chopsticks following Kakashi’s lead. “Well, then, um. _Itadakimasu_!”

Kakashi finishes in record time before Iruka could even bring noodle to lips, slurping his appreciation and tactfully asks how the rest of Iruka’s day went. Iruka does his best to answer Kakashi’s questions in between bites and swallows, taking advantage of the windows when Kakashi regales him of his illustrious victory over Gai at the sakura-picking challenge.

It’s pleasant and not at all awkward, as Iruka had imagined when it came to matters involving crazy ex-jounin and their social niceties. Kakashi pays for dinner before dutifully walking Iruka to his door.

The walk is comfortably silent, occasionally disturbed by Iruka greeting someone or being greeted by someone.

“I had a nice time,” Iruka informs him, one hand on the lock jutsu in his door and the other on Kakashi’s sleeve to prevent him from poofing away with a transportation jutsu.

“Me too,” Kakashi replies solemnly. There’s something about the way Kakashi carries himself, every line screaming sad in bright capital letters and flashing neon lights.

“And I… was wondering, Kakashi-san…”

“Yes?”

“If I could ask you for a favour?”

Kakashi nods, his anti-gravity bushy hair waving with the motion.

“I would like to ask, and you can say no of course, but, um, would you like to go out to dinner tomorrow as well?” Iruka quickly clarifies, “With me that is. On a date.”

Judging from the bright look on Kakashi’s face, it looks like Kakashi’s birthday has suddenly come early.

“Yes!” Kakashi exclaims, sending someone’s ninken off a few floors below. Not that either of them cared by that particular event. “But only if you figure out where I like to spend my Tuesday nights having dinner… I often don’t know where the Road of Life can lead me...”

Iruka laughs, shaking his head at how impossible Kakashi is. “I look forward to this challenge.” He bravely steps up and brushes a kiss to the side of Kakashi’s mask over his cheek and bids him goodnight before quickly slipping inside of his apartment.

From inside, he hears the sound of Kakashi’s victory dance and can’t help but to smile broadly at himself.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Remember to leave a comment below, or at the [LJ post](http://kakairu-fest.livejournal.com/128949.html?mode=reply#add_comment)!


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